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Monday,
December 31, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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Vajpayee to meet Khaleda in Kathmandu China denies border incursions 227 killed, 160 injured in
Lima fire
Grim forecast for Asia Keep India informed, Lanka asks Norway Mbeki for end to baby rapes |
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Tunnel being cleared for
‘reunity’
15 civilians killed in Afghanistan Islam bans terrorism: Fahd 11 Misuari
men killed
in clash 7 Maoists
killed Nepal buys 2 Russian choppers
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Vajpayee to meet Khaleda in Kathmandu Dhaka, December 30 This will be the first meeting of Ms Zia with Mr Vajpayee after assuming power. Earlier, Ms Zia had sent Finance Minister M. Saifur Rahman to New Delhi and during latter’s meeting with Mr Vajpayee, he conveyed the willingness of Ms Zia to meet Mr Vajpayee in the sidelines of the SAARC summit. Now the Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh, Mr Moni Lal Tripathy, confirmed to the private news agency United News of Bangladesh that the meeting would take place in Kathmandu. However, he said there would be no fixed agenda and the two leaders could discuss whatever they liked for further bilateral and regional cooperation. Mr Tripathy also confirmed that Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh, and Bangladesh Foreign Minister Morshed Khan would take up bilateral issues during a meeting in Kathmandu. Mr Khan would arrive in Kathmandu on January 1 to attend preparatory meeting of SAARC. The two-day Secretary-level trade talks between Bangladesh and India scheduled to begin on December 26 was postponed on a request of the Indian delegation. Local newspapers hinted that the Indian delegation did not agree to the agenda proposed by Bangladesh which included discussion on removal of all trade barriers facilitating increase in volume of trade to narrow the ever widening trade balance against Bangladesh, duty-free access for 25 categories of Bangladesh export items and renewal of trade agreement. Meanwhile, Bangladesh has allowed re-export of fruits coming from Kolkata to be transported by local transporters to seven northeastern states of India. Local trade bodies raised the question that usually re-export is allowed only to a third country not to the country from which the import was made. The Bangladesh Commerce Minister argued that allowing this would benefit their country financially. |
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China denies border incursions Beijing, December 30 The Chinese side, in a very responsible manner, has stated that the entire China-India boundary remains peaceful, tranquil and stable. There is no such situation as suggested in news reports, Deputy Director-General of the Asian Department of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Sun Guoxiang told PTI in an interview. Asked to comment on the report, which came ahead of Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji’s first official visit to India next month, Sun said: “I am deeply shocked and surprised to learn the news item”. A newspaper has reported that India has put its troops on alert on the eastern front as well in response to “hostile actions” by China in recent weeks. However, Sun said no incident of border intrusion took place and that the Sino-Indian border area was quite peaceful. “According to the information I have, all the sectors of the China-India boundary is quite peaceful. This is not simply my own comment, but also shared by my counterpart from India,” Sun said, referring to the December 17 session of the India-China Experts Group (EG) on the boundary issue which was held here,” he said. “We had our boundary talks recently. During the talks, the two sides had concurred and reached the following consensus that China-India boundary now remains peaceful, tranquil and stable,” Sun said. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue had described the tenth session of the experts group as positive. In an atmosphere of friendship and frankness, both the sides exchanged opinions on clarifying and confirming the Line of Actual Control (LAC) alignment, establishing confidence building measures, bilateral relations etc, she said. The talks were positive and concrete, deepening the mutual understanding, she added. India and China for the first time exchanged maps of the middle sector of the LAC during the eighth meeting of the EG in November 2000. The disputed India-China border is divided into three sectors: the eastern sector, middle sector and western sector. India says China is illegally occupying 43,180 sq km of Jammu and Kashmir including 5,180 sq km illegally ceded to Beijing by Pakistan under the Sino-Pakistan boundary agreement in 1963. On the other hand, China claims that India has occupied about 90,000 sq km of Chinese territory and describes the Mcmahon Line drawn by the British as unlawful. The clarification of the LAC is the first step towards the final resolution of the vexed Sino-Indian boundary dispute.
PTI |
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Pakistan to get Chinese F-7s London, December 30 Quoting Pakistan Air Force (PAF) Chief of Staff Air Chief Marshal Mushaf Ali Mir, the Jane’s Defence Weekly said the service’s new F-7PG fighters were scheduled to arrive in Karachi on December 17 and 20 aboard Chinese ships. The report, however, does not confirm the delivery. Chinese specialists were also expected to arrive in the country in late December to oversee the aircraft’s assembly.
PTI |
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227 killed, 160 injured in Lima fire
Lima, December 30 He said rescue workers were using a video camera to search through the debris for more bodies. The fire began last night in a store that was illegally selling home-made fireworks for new year’s celebrations after vendors tested some of the wares. It quickly spread through a four-block area of historic downtown Lima.
AFP |
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Grim forecast for Asia Hong Kong, December 30 Although regional experts believe conflict is not necessarily on the rise in Asia, decades-old points of tension will next year inevitably lead to a repeat of the thousands of violent deaths that occurred in 2001. “If you start looking at conflicts throughout the region, you see an inability of countries to resolve tensions that led to these conflicts,” the Asia Pacific editor of the Jane’s Defence Weekly, Mr Robert Karniol, told AFP. Mr Karniol pointed to the build-up of Pakistan and Indian troops along their border and in Kashmir as an example of unresolved tensions leading to conflict. The nuclear rivals had fought two wars over Kashmir since they gained independence. Mr Karniol said the latest crisis stemmed from the same issues as those sparked the previous conflicts. “This is the most recent flare up in 50 years of tension ... And the only thing we can say with any degree of certainty is they haven’t addressed the core issues.” Meanwhile, Muslim separatist drive in Kashmir, which India accuses Pakistan of backing, continues to exact a grisly toll. According to official Indian figures, separatist-related violence in Kashmir claimed 3,440 lives in 2001, including 2,017 militants, 927 civilians and 496 security personnel. The US-led military action inside nearby Afghanistan during 2001 has also thrown up many potential regional security pitfalls for 2002, despite the early promise of the war-ravaged nation’s new government, according to Mr Karniol. Hong Kong-based regional analyst Lau Siu Kai agreed, warning Pakistan, which had previously supported the Taliban regime, now had a potentially unfriendly government on its western border in Afghanistan as well as India to the east. “Right now Pakistan is facing hostility on both sides of its boundaries so it is under a lot of pressure,” said Mr Lau. Elsewhere in Asia, experts predict thousands of people will die in ongoing national crises in a manner little different from 2001 and previous years. In Sri Lanka, an average of 2,000 persons had been killed each year since the Tamil Tigers began their push for an independent homeland in the island’s northeast in 1972. And in Nepal, more than 500 persons were killed as Maoist rebels stepped up a five-year rebellion to overthrow monarchy. Other armed insurgents committed to their bloody path include at least 30 rebel groups in India’s northeastern states, whose demands range from secession to greater autonomy. More than 75,000 persons have lost their lives to insurgency in the northeast since India’s independence. Aside from national insurgencies, major regional tensions are poised, as always to become international flash points, analysts say. Mr Karniol rates the tensions between China and Taiwan, the two Koreas and India and Pakistan as the three with the most potential to flare into major conflicts.
AFP |
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Keep India informed, Lanka asks Norway Colombo, December 30 Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in a letter to his Norwegian counterpart, Kjell Magne Bondevik, asked that oslo revive its peace efforts in Sri Lanka and keep India informed on a “need to know basis.” “It is understood that the Royal Norwegian Government will keep India and other relevant parties informed of the developments on a need to know basis,” officials quoted Mr Wickremesinghe as saying in his letter on Friday. Mr Wickremesinghe, who returned from a three-day visit to India, said New Delhi supported Norway’s assistance as a “third party facilitator”. The Prime Minister said he was also setting up a separate cell within his office to deal with the peace process and handle all press queries and deal with informing other political groups in the island. A senior diplomat, Mr Bernard Gunatilleke, is tipped to head this cell. Norway has also been asked to keep the country’s main opposition People’s Alliance (PA) informed the same way Mr Wickremesinghe was briefed by the Norwegians when he was the leader of the opposition. PTI |
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Mbeki for end to baby rapes Johannesburg, December 30 “As the year came to its end, we concentrated on rape and in particular the rape of children and infants. This demands that everybody should be involved in fighting this horrible crime,’’ he said in his annual address. “Rapes occur in our homes, they occur amongst relatives, they occur among people who know one another. We must make sure that indeed we break the silence with regard to this, that we report the wrongdoers to the police and make sure that the system of justice punishes these people appropriately.’’ Though used to violence, South Africans were shocked by the spate of baby rapes late in 2001. Many were by men who believe that sex with a virgin will cure them of AIDs, anti-rape organisations say. An estimated one in nine South Africans carries the HIV virus which causes the disease, one of the highest infection rates in the world. Mbeki, who has drawn international criticism for questioning the link between HIV and AIDS, made only a passing reference to the virus, urging people to help fight theft and corruption within the public health system. He also said that South Africa would play a key role in resolving conflicts on the continent. “We have moved forward towards peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo and during this coming year South Africa will be hosting the inter-congolese dialogue, which will enable the Congolese people to take their country forward.’’ More than two million people have died since the start of Congo’s Civil war in 1998. Mbeki noted that the first summit of the newly-founded African Union would be held in South Africa in 2002 - the year the country assumes its presidency - along with the world summit for sustainable development. “All of these things demonstrate the confidence of the rest of the world in our country, in our people,’’ he said. He congratulated workers and business people for supporting the economy, which he said had performed well despite the global slowdown.
Reuters |
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Tunnel being cleared for ‘reunity’ Kabul, December 30 But Russian engineers, French and British charities and teams of Afghan day labourers with bulldozers and welding torches are working to let cars and trucks pass through the legendary Salang tunnel, dynamited shut several years ago by Northern Alliance guerrillas fending off the Taliban. The route will bring life-giving aid to hungry millions, carry refugees home and open a trade link between central and southern Asia, providing a peace dividend not just for Afghanistan but for the wider region. “It’s the key link between the north and south of the country,” said Mr Sebastian Trives, chief of mission of French charity ACTED, which has teams working on the north entrance. “It’s not just important because of the economics and facilitating the travel of people. This is a sign of the destruction of Afghanistan, a sign of 30 years of war. When this is rehabilitated, you can say that Afghanistan is taking a step forward and reuniting itself.” Beg Murat and his family, refugees returning home to the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif on Friday from three years exile in camps in Pakistan, could not wait. “We heard our city is free and we can now go home,” he said. His group of five burqa-clad women, seven men and seven exhausted small children were huddled in a bitter wind outside the tunnel’s new entrance, where engineers had blasted a hole through the mountainside to bypass rubble and reinforced concrete blocking the mouth. Their belongings were few and their clothes far too thin for the cold. They had paid about $ 30 per person for a three-day bus ride to the Salang. After walking through the tunnel they would have to find another bus home and pay still more. But without the tunnel, the trip would be all but impossible in winter. When the tunnel is finally opened to traffic, goods and passengers will be able to drive from Kabul to Mazar-e-Sharif in about eight hours, year round. The alternative route now takes four days and is closed in winter. With the Taliban gone, Uzbekistan has reopened the Friendship Bridge north of Mazar-e-Sharif, the main link between Afghanistan and the ex-Soviet states of central Asia. When the Salang is clear, Uzbek and Tajik goods will be able to reach Kabul in a single day, or Pakistan in two. Russia’s Emergencies Ministry, Britain’s HALO Trust charity and ACTED say they can get the tunnel cleared by the end of January. Teams are working from both ends, cutting debris loose and hauling it
out. Reuters |
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15 civilians killed in Afghanistan
Islamabad, December 30 |
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Pact on Afghan force Kabul, December 30 Mr Abdullah also said that Osama bin Laden, the Saudi-born militant earlier said to have slipped out to Pakistan despite weeks of heavy US bombing, was probably still in Afghanistan. The US campaign for Bin Laden and his Al-Qaida fighters, was not yet over and should continue.
Reuters |
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Karzai to visit India soon Kabul, December 30 |
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Islam bans terrorism: Fahd Muscat, December 30 Fahd granted the interview on the occasion of the summit to be held here today of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), of which Saudi Arabia is the largest member. “It is normal to cooperate to eradicate (terrorism), with a view to avoiding these evils, and we have always called and will continue to call for such cooperation,” he said. Fahd said Saudi Arabia and the other GCC members “are doing what they can to support international efforts in this area, as long as this conforms to our Sharia and to the principles of international legitimacy.”
AFP |
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11 Misuari
men killed in clash Zambonga (Philippines), December 30 Field reports reaching the military southern command here said around 40 Misuari followers from the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) attacked patrolling members of the Marine Battalion Landing Troop in the town of Luuk, triggering six hours of fighting yesterday. Eleven Misuari followers and two soldiers died, the report said. Members of the Muslim Abu Sayyaf group were seen backing up the Misuari followers, it added. Misuari is currently in Malaysian detention for a failed revolt he allegedly instigated in Jolo and nearby Zamboanga city last month in which scores of people were killed. Military southern command chief Lieut-Gen Roy Cimatu said the ambush was apparently in retaliation for an offensive by soldiers against a rebel encampment earlier in the day. The assault was ordered after the same group of gunmen attacked soldiers last week. President Gloria Arroyo yesterday said she was expecting Misuari to be repatriated from Malaysia by January 15. Upon arrival, Misuari will be arrested, detained and tried.
AFP |
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7 Maoists killed Kathmandu, December 30 In the latest encounters between the joint security teams and the Maoist rebels, seven terrorists were killed in different parts of the country, Defence Ministry spokesman Bhola Silwal said. Two terrorists, including a guerrilla commander, were killed in Baluwa of Kabhrepalanchowk district, east of Kathmandu during today’s operation, according to the Defence Ministry. Two terrorists were killed in Kailali district, one each in Dhunche of Rasuwa, Ghorepani of Solukhumbu and Patale village near the border between Okhaldhunga and Solukhumbu districts, the Defence Ministry sources said. During various operations, 23 terrorists and 14 suspected terrorists, including three from Kathmandu, were arrested. The security people have confiscated 22 bombs and 150 kg of explosives from Ghorepani of Solukhumbu district. They also recovered 53 guns from Tapovan of Darchula district and seven guns from Syangja district.
PTI |
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Nepal buys 2 Russian choppers Kathmandu, December 30 Defence Secretary Padam Kumar Acharya told Reuters the MI-17 helicopters could be equipped with night-vision facilities and weapons to strike at rebel targets at night. “The helicopters were purchased by the government and will be pressed into operation by the Royal Nepal Army soon,” Acharya said. Last month, Nepal deployed its army, consisting of fearsome Gurkha soldiers, to flush out the Maoist guerrillas from their mountain hideouts after the insurgents broke a truce and attacked several police and army posts. But officials said the offensive against the rebels, who launch night-time hit-and-run attacks on remote mountain security posts, was constrained by a lack of helicopters for troop movement and air strikes. Nepal’s southern neighbour, India, provided two helicopters early this month following an appeal for help from the Nepali government.
Reuters |
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Despite
clean-ups with massive amounts of chlorine dioxide gas, traces
of anthrax spores linger at a Senate office building in
Washington, D.C., and a postal facility in New York City.
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